Thinking about putting this in as a house rule, what do you think?

[Xorial]

Not this again . . . Only the whiny ones have a problem with the new critical hit system. This is not about balance, it's about the fact that critical hits should be special, and if your threat range is 12-20 IT IS NO LONGER SPECIAL.

Critical hits should never be standard. 3.5 makes it how it always should have been.

If you want the chance of longer threat ranges at higher level, do what I did and make new feats. I have an EPIC feat that triples threat range and a SUPER EPIC feat (needing like Level 50+) that quadruples it. That way you actually have to earn a high threat range.

I dont see the problem. By the time a character spent enough feats, or got a keen weapon & feats, they will be high enough in level, that it won't matter anyway. Besides, like you said, it's a THREAT range. You still need to make another roll to see if it is a crit. If you spent that many feats on Improved Crit, you take away from other feats that offer more constant damage. Most fighter types in my campaign would rather have other feats.

 

[the Jester]

Emphasis mine. Doesn't that just encourage low threat range but high critical weapons? The doubling was balanced because an 18-20 /x2 weapon benefited roughly as much as a 20 /x4 weapon. Under your system, the 20 /x4 weapon is still getting a doubling, but the 18-20 /x2 is merely getting +.3.

It seems easier to just keep it 3.0 way, or perhaps make a greater keen enhancement which stacks with imp crit (which many would think is silly, since apparantly even keen was lowly at +1).

Technik

Good point... originally they were designed for 3.0, when you could bump your 12-20 to 11-20 (rather than 9-20).